32 replies to this topic

[AntBoi3030]

I gave them this new outworld! It was getting hard to feed them in the ants Canada setup.

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Edited by AntBoi3030, July 14 2021 - 7:37 AM.

[AntBoi3030]

Just realized how awful that previous photo was so I changed it. I check on one of the temnothorax dbbga03 queens and she had 3large larvae! She is progressing nicely after 2 weeks.

[AntBoi3030]

Update:
All of the queens have large larvae now! I spotted a two queen colony with a few pupae. It looks like a single queen produces 3-5 nanitics so not very many. Yesterday I was searching for walnuts to make a hydro stone walnut formicaruim. The first on I cracked in half had a temnothorax colony in it D: so I moved them into a temporary setup until I find them a new home (1st picture) here are some photos I took of the queens on Friday. In the last photo you can see that I added a cork incert for fun, they actually ended up kicking one of the queens out because she is sitting on the other side of the incert lol. I suspect we’ll have nanitics in 1-2 weeks

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Edited by AntBoi3030, July 25 2021 - 6:36 AM.

[CatsnAnts]

Cute c:

[AntBoi3030]

Update:
They all have pupae! I’m expecting workers soon. Not very much else going on with them though. Picture of the largest colony

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[AntBoi3030]

We got workers (from one colony)!!! They are so cute with their small eyes and spindly legs, they are actually larger then the pheidole nanitics. I gave them some berry sugar water. It looks like this colony (3 queens one possibly infertile) will have a whopping four nanitics. I can’t wait for the eight queen colony to get some nanitics.

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[ANTdrew]

What is your berry sugar water?

[AntBoi3030]

It’s normal sugar water (2 parts water 1 part sugar) with red food coloring that uses raspberries as the color. It actually tastes like Raspberries and my ants prefer this over plain sugar water.
Edit: It also makes all ants larvae show up pink/red so they are easier to see.

Edited by AntBoi3030, August 12 2021 - 11:02 AM.

[AntBoi3030]

Update:
I moved my largest colony of temnothorax(8q 10ish workers) into the mini terrarium I literally just smacked the hell out of their test tube and they just walked into the acorn. Sorry about the bad photo of the acorn, it was really hard to get good lighting, I’ll try to get some better pictures later(I’m to lazy right now lol).

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Edited by AntBoi3030, September 5 2021 - 2:10 PM.

[AntBoi3030]

Update:
The main colony in the acrylic nest is doing fine despite the fact the the queen disappeared months ago. I assume she is dead sense I checked the nest multiple times in the past weeks. As sad as it is to loose the queen this colony still has TONS of larvae. The whole floor of the nest is covered with fat larvae. I’m not sure if these are male alates or not but they are starting to get around the same size if not bigger than the workers. After I took them out of hibernation I noticed eggs popping up. These eggs have since grown into small larvae. I’m guessing these are infertile eggs laid by workers. If they are males I’m going to try to get them to mate with a wild queen or get them to fly off in June. Fingers crossed

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[AntBoi3030]

Very good news!!!
I found the queen . I’m super happy I guess she was just buried by brood or something. There are lots of brood now and tons of eggs.

[antgallery]

Those are some thicc larvae.

[AntBoi3030]

Update: 

Alate pupa! mostly queen alate pupa. I guess the colony has reached maturity? The queen recently laid a new batch of eggs that are currently stuck to the ceiling. I'll start feeding them more because i can defiantly foresee  tons of small larvae flooding the nest. i'll update this when they enclose which could be soon because the pupa has visible eyes!